


Adventures of Bernadetta von Varley in the Black Eagles' Cafe

by cc_citrius



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, Fleetingly but, M/M, Modern AU, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, References to Depression, coffee shop AU, inspired by Amélie, mention of sexual assault, reference to social anxiety
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:27:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26346337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cc_citrius/pseuds/cc_citrius
Summary: This is the first day Bernadetta starts working at the Black Eagles Cafe.Incidentally, this is also the first day Bernadetta steps out of her apartment in 14 months.
Relationships: Bernie & Everyone, Caspar von Bergliez/Linhardt von Hevring, Dorothea Arnault/Petra Macneary, Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 36
Kudos: 66





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic inspired by the movie Amélie. Bernadetta reacquaints herself with society (with real human beings!) after being a shut-in for over a year. Featuring a depressed and very socially anxious Bernie, hopefully finding friendship and brings love to her friends. If you've watched Amélie you know pranks and matchmaking will definitely be part of this fic. I love my Black Eagle kids so all of them are gonna be here.  
> Please come yell with me about fire emblem @cc_citrius on Twitter!

This is the first day Bernadetta starts working at the Black Eagles Cafe.

Incidentally, this is also the first day Bernadetta steps out of her apartment in 14 months. Bernadetta had to order new clothes online a week ahead so she can make herself presentable; she had also planned out her first day at work in great detail, from the commute route to an escape route if a customer yells at her. But when she woke up this morning, she still lay in her bed for a solid 30 minutes before she could muster the energy to actually get up and get ready. Well at least now she’s outside the apartment complex.

Good job Bernie! One step towards being a functional human being Bernie!

The commute wasn’t too bad. The Black Eagles Cafe is only 3 bus stops away from where Bernadetta lives, and there isn’t a whole lot of people riding this particular bus. Bernadetta was able to maintain her personal space while she tried to blend into the background and drew as little attention as possible. The cafe is a block away from the bus stop. Thanks to the instructions Bernadetta’s new employer provided, she was able to find this stylish place without getting lost.

Bernadetta mentally steels herself as she draws a shaky breath and pushes open the wooden door with a bronze eagle head as door knob. Edelgard von Hresvelg, the owner of the Black Eagles Cafe, is sitting at the bar, legs crossed and reading a paperback.

“You’re five minutes late.” Edelgard states. Bernadetta immediately panics.

“IIIIIII’m terribly sorry Mssssss. von Hresvelg! I promise it won’t ha-happen again p-p-please forgive me-“

“It’s ok.” Edelgard puts up a hand to stop Bernadetta, “I’m glad you’re here. Welcome to the Black Eagles. Here’s your name tag.” She hands Bernadetta a bronze badge. Bernadetta fumbled before gingerly pinned it to her flannel.

“Meet your coworkers, Dorothea-“ She gestures to a pretty woman with giant earrings, “-and Caspar.” an energetic-looking man with shiny cyan hair. Bernadetta manages to smile at them. Dorothea smiles back while Caspar says (yells?): “Yo you must be Bernadetta! S’up!”

“Yes this is Bernadetta, the new hire. You don’t have to yell Caspar.” The man looks properly chastised as Edelgard turns her attention back to Bernadetta, “They take turns on barista and cashier duties. You’re to shadow whoever’s on barista duty and learn the basics of coffee making in the setting of a coffeehouse. I’ll give you a week. Afterwards I want you to make me three drinks of my choice, and if I’m happy with your coffee making skills, you can start working as a barista too.”

“So she’s not gonna work as a cashier?” Dorothea pipes up.

Edelgard pauses for a second. “She… Well, she does not handle interpersonal interactions very well. Besides, from what I heard Bernadetta has quite a bit cooking talent, so maybe she will make a pretty awesome barista. We’ll see.”

Bernadetta’s new coworkers nod, seemingly approving the answer Edelgard gives. Bernadetta lets out a small breath she’s been holding, and squeaks, “Thank you! I’ll do my best!”

“I’m sure you will.” Edelgard smiles and gestures them to get going with work. Caspar goes to the door to flip the ‘CLOSED’ sign to ‘OPEN’, and Dorothea approaches Bernadetta cheerfully, gives her a quick one-over, and leads her around the counter into the kitchen.

“So you don’t like to talk to people?” Dorothea smiles at Bernadetta.

“Mmmmnnnnnn……” Bernadetta says eloquently.

“It’s ok. You don’t have to. I’ll talk you through the process and maybe when we have less customers you can try make something for yourself. Now let’s start with espresso based drinks….”

====

Bernadetta does love cooking and makes a wicked milkshake. She’d like to think that helped her land the job, in addition to her very nice neighbor being friends with Edelgard and put in a word for her. However when it comes to caffeinated drinks she has never made anything more complicated than drip coffee. So she pays close attention to what Dorothea does with the drinks and tries to not get in the way. She helps with cleaning the pots, and with a few encouraging smiles from Dorothea, shakily reads the names on the orders and hands them to the customers. Both her coworkers are fairly friendly, and the intimidating shouting customer Bernadetta has envisioned previously in her detailed notes has yet to show up. In fact the morning rush consists mostly of college students from Garreg Mach University, since this cafe is sitting right at the edge of its campus. Still, the stress from seeing so many faces is slowly creeping up on her and she can feel her energy visibly draining. Maybe she can take a break in the storage room? No Bernie you can do it! Bernadetta mentally scolds herself and goes back to being Dorothea’s tail.

“Look what we’ve got here.”

A slick and vaguely menacing voice rings as a dark haired man with bangs covering one eye shows up (materializes from shadows, as Bernadetta sees it), eyes scanning the spill anyone has yet to clean up, the haphazardly stacked receipt stubs in front of Caspar, Dorothea, and finally landing his attention on Bernadetta.

“So you are the new hire….” the man narrows his eyes, “Can’t say I’m impressed.”

Bernadetta squeaks weakly. Dorothea takes a step forward and shields her from the imminent danger that is Hubert von Vestra, childhood friend of Edelgard, as Bernie will learn later.

“Hello Hubie. What brings you here today?” Dorothea sing-songs with a smile that seems to say oh here comes trouble.

“Just checking in. I want to make sure no one is sabotaging lady Edelgard’s business.” Hubert hums, eyes not leaving Bernadetta, “Ms. Varley, I assume? You’d do well not to slack.”

“Y-yes!’ Bernadetta squeaks a bit louder this time.

“Good. Or there will be consequences to pay.” Hubert turns to Caspar, “One medium cold brew please.”

Caspar looks like he’s about to say something when Dorothea pokes him in the side. He jumps and turns to Dorothea with a pinched expression. Dorothea wiggles her brows a few times and vaguely gestures. Caspar frantically gestures back and eventually throws his hands in the air and seemingly concedes. Hubert watches the whole exchange with thinly veiled amusement.

Caspar tsk’d loudly and goes to type down Hubert’s order. Dorothea promptly pours a cup and hands the drink to Hubert.

“Look, don’t intimidate her, Ok? Bernadetta has been helpful, we don’t want you to scare her away.”

Hubert raises his one visible eyebrow. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He takes the drink and leaves.

Dorothea turns around to face Bernadetta. “Hubert’s always like that. Don’t worry about-“

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! BERNIE CANT TAKE IT! HE WILL KILL BERNIE!” Bernadetta screams, runs to the storage room and slams the door with a bang.

“Well you should’ve let me yell at him.” Caspar says to a mildly alarmed Dorothea.

====

“I-I’m sauray.” Bernadetta takes a giant bite of the sandwich Dorothea brought her to throttle the process of crying. “But he’s really s-scary…”

They’re sitting in the storage-slash-break room while Caspar minds the shopfront. Edelgard got one of those scarlet lip shaped couch from a yard sale and somehow decided it fits the aesthetic of her employees’ working environment. Dorothea loves it. Bernadetta has to admit it’s cute. Caspar absolutely refuse to sit on it and has brought a tiny stool for himself.

Dorothea pats Bernadetta’s arm and offers her a tissue. “I know. Hubert likes to intimidate people in general but I assure you he doesn’t mean anything by it. He’s actually not a bad person, but he prefers it if people fear him.”

“Is he a manager?” Bernadetta hiccs. “Do we report to him? I don’t think I can f-face him a second time s-so if we have to report to him, I’ll have to q-q-quit.”

“Oh no. He’s just a friend of Edie.” Dorothea sighs, “I can see why he gives that impression though. They grew up together and Hubie seems to be determined to assist Edie in the business world. He works as a lawyer and I think he helped with some serious case with Edie before.”

“Does he come here often?” Bernadetta asks and wipes at her now puffed eyes.

“Unfortunately, yes. But Caspar and I will protect you!” Dorothea puffs up her chest. “Besides I don’t see him actually harm your career prospect, it’s not like Edie listens to him half of the times. You just need to make good coffee! And we’re here to help you with that.”

Dorothea reached out her fist. Bernadetta looks at it, confused for a second before timidly bumps it.

====

Bernadetta exchanged numbers and SNS with Dorothea and Caspar and when she’s safely home away from the terrifying world, she happily logs on to get to know more about her new friends. She just found out Caspar works as a personal trainer beside the cafe job, and Dorothea has a Youtube channel where she sings musical and opera songs, when she hears someone knocking on the door. She tiptoes to the door, peeks through the lens and finds her very good neighbor Byleth.

“Sensei!” Bernadetta squeaks and opens the door for her. “Mmm come in! My room is not super clean b-but! Have a seat!”

“Thank you Bernadetta.” Byleth smiles. “You’ve come a long way. I remember when you just moved here, getting you to talk through the door would be an achievement.”

“Y-yes.” Bernadetta says and flushes a little. “You helped a lot.”

“Always happy to. So how was your first day at work? I’ve always find the Beagles cafe a pretty cozy place, so I was hoping it doesn’t consist anything too anxiety-inducing for you.”

“It is o-okay I think? Edelgard’s friend Hubert is very scary! but Dorothea and Caspar are very nice!.”

Byleth raises a brow. “I guess Hubert hasn’t changed… Well, it’s ok if you go and hide when he shows up. Edelgard would understand. I told her you are coping with social anxiety issues.”

“I’m surprised she’s ok with it!”

“Yes. Some would say El is unconventional, but she is actually progressive in her own way. She told me mental illness is a disability and thus should not be discriminated against. She said if you’re only making the coffee and not talking to customers, your ability to do the job would not be impaired.”

“That is so nice of her!”

Byleth smiles. “She’s cool like that. So how do you like making coffee?”

“Hmmm making espresso is tricky! You have to make the temperature and pressure just right. A lot of other drinks are just mixing things up. They also have a lot of pre-made stuff like syrups to speed things up. Dorothea made a heart shape with foamed milk in latte today, I think that’s really cool!”

“Ah I’ve had those. Some people make more elaborate latte art with cocoa powder too. I’m sure there’re Youtube videos we can watch…” Byleth fishes out her phone out of her pocket and searches.

“Look at this.”

“Hmm that doesn’t look too hard!”

“Think you can make something like that?”

Bernadetta stares at the good professor and hums.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bernie practices her coffee making.

Bernadetta is just putting on her apron when a man with dark green hair tied into a bun pushes into the cafe, says ‘Hi’ flatly, and promptly passes out with a thud.

Bernadetta counts to three before she starts screaming. It’s a trick Byleth taught her.

“Kyaaaaaaaa!”

“Lin!” Casper barks and hurries to the collapsed man’s side. He flips him over, pokes him all over the place, and after a bit he declares: “Nah he’s ok. Think we can leave him in the break room guys?”

“Don’t see why not.” Dorothea shrugs.

Caspar pulls the man up and carries him on one shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Dorothea smirks and opens the storage room door for him. “There you go sleeping beauty.”

Bernadetta blinks a few times. “D-d-d-d-don’t we need to call an ambulance?”

Caspar dumps the green-haired man onto the lip-shaped couch and scurries to find a blanket. “Nope. He does that all the time. I think he’s just tired.”

Bernadetta continues to stare.

“Oh! You guys haven’t met yet. Right, Linhardt here is my boyfriend. He’s a fourth year med student and you can probably guess, but he is not getting enough sleep. Here.” Caspar takes Bernadetta’s hand in his right, grabbing Linhardt’s hand by his left, and sticks their hands together.

“You’ve officially met! You won’t feel nervous around him now, right? At least that’s what I heard about introverted people.”

Bernadetta blinks a few more times, and decides to nod.

===

Dorothea took off after the afternoon rush, claiming she “has business elsewhere”. The apparently always tired man named Linhardt awakens from his slumber soon after and demands coffee. Caspar rushes to the pot before he stops himself.

“You know what? Bernadetta here can make you some coffee. Come on Bern, it’ll be practice.”

Linhardt shoots a look to Caspar. “Why? Oh, because she is new?”

“Well yes, but also because Hubert has done his bit and threatened to throw her out if she cannot make coffee.”

“He threatened you the same thing when you took this job. I never saw you practice.”

Caspar scratches his head a bit bashfully. “Hey!…. Well a bunch of drunk idiots showed up here a while back and tried to make a mess. I kicked them out. I guess Hubert decided a barista who’s also security isn’t half bad.”

Linhardt hums. “Hmm I remember that. Ok, guess it can’t hurt.”

“Th-thanks!” Bernadetta squeaks. She mentally prepares herself for the challenge before she realizes she has no idea what to make for the man.

“Wh-what would you like to have, Mr. Linhardt?”

“Well, usually I’d just ask for stuff from the pot since I’m not a coffee fanatic like Hubert… But seeing you’re practicing, let’s say an espresso?”

“S-sure!” Bernadetta proceeds to grind up some beans.

“You might want to pack that a bit tighter.”

Bernadetta jumps and almost dropped her spoonful of coffee powder. She realizes Linhardt is just standing behind her.

“Iiiiis that so?!”

“Hmm that’s just my opinion. Don’t Espresso machine require some consistency in the procedures?”

“Hmmmmmmm I guess!”

Bernadetta feels she has no choice but press down the coffee powder like her life depends on it. She proceeds with the rest of the coffee making protocol and hands the small cup of liquid to Linhardt. He chugs it and frowns. Bernadetta is (even more) startled, both because the way he drinks espresso and the frown.

“I-i-i-is it not good?”

“It’s a little sour. That’s ok, you just need to try again and do it slightly differently. With enough tries we will find the optimal way of making coffee. Control of variables, you know?”

Bernadetta stares at him.

“Oh, and remember to time when you turn on and off the faucet. I imagine the time is important. Well the machine probably needs time to warm up too, but as long as we do it consecutively, hopefully that won’t affect the temperature too much. Hmm I guess we can leave the pressure setting for the time being and fiddle with that later.”

Bernadetta turns helplessly to Caspar for moral support. He cheerfully waves.

“Sounds good! You know Bernadetta, Lin once gave me instructions to beat this guy larger than me in Jujutsu class! His plan always works!”

Bernadetta would argue that hand-to-hand combat is very different from coffee making, but she is not equipped with the oral skills of argumentation. Besides, Linhardt sounds like he’s really good at arguments and therefore Bernie would want to avoid that.

“What are you waiting for? Go make me another one. Remember to time!” Linhardt shoos her back into the kitchen.

===

“What tf happened?”

Dorothea utters some rare profanity when she comes back to the Black Eagle Cafe to a Caspar running wildly in circles, yelling ‘I am the King of the world!’ and a Linhardt smiling fondly at his boyfriend while shaking at a moderately high frequency.

Bernadetta smiles apologetically. “They drank all my practice espressos. On the bright side, I make a pretty good espresso now!”

====

“Hmm….” Edelgard takes a sip of the coffee and hums. Bernadetta wrings her hands and stares at her nervously.

“This is pretty good!” Edelgard holds up the cup and scrutinizes its contents. “Bernadetta, you’re good at this.”

“She’s been practicing a lot!” Caspar says excitedly. “Actually I think I’ve had too much of her practice coffee, I haven’t come down from my caffein high yet.” 

Both Edelgard and Dorothea frowns at that but didn’t say anything.

“D-do you really think it’s good?” Bernadetta peeps.

“Well definitely good enough for us to charge money for it!” Dorothea takes the cup from Edelgard and sips, then throws Bernadetta an encouraging smile. “Bern, don’t you have more to show Edie?”

“Oh y-yes!” Bernadetta hurries to the espresso machine to make another shot, froths up some milk and pours a latte. She then painstakingly transfers balls of milk foams on to the surface of the drink with two spoons, and decorates it with chocolate sauce to make it look like a bunny. She presents the latte art to Edelgard while Dorothea says “Ta-dah! “And Edelgard looks properly impressed.

“Aha. This is definitely one more thing we can add on the menu…”

“Yes. And make custom orders! Think about all the silly boys who are desperate to impress their special someone. They’d definitely pay for Bernie to write names on coffee.” Dorothea sticks a finger under her chin.

“See, told you we have a keeper.” Caspar laughs and starts to poke the foam bunny with a spoon.

“Yes. Well, I never said I’m not confident…. And you probably want to refrain from drinking more coffee for the day.” Edelgard moves the latte away from Caspar before she turns her attention back to Bernadetta.

“As for Bernadetta, she’s fully capable to take on barista duties alone now. That should give Dorothea and Caspar more flexible hours now.” She turns to Dorothea. “Happy?”

Dorothea beams. “Very.”

“And let’s add latte art to our menu. Say one different pattern everyday for the week? So there’s some ‘limited edition’ feeling to it and we can keep surprising the customers. Well, I’m sure that’s something you can manage Bernadetta.” 

Edelgard gives her a pat on the shoulder. Bernadetta feels she has no choice but to squeak ‘yes’, if not to salute and say ‘yes ma’am. That may very well be what Hubert would want her to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mostly hijinks. I have yet to figure out how to matchmake.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bernadetta runs into a former acquaintance.

Bernadetta volunteered for an evening shift to mind the shop by herself. There isn’t a whole lot of people in the evening consuming coffee, except vampire-like creatures who happen to be named Hubert. And the professor says push your limits when you’re getting comfortable - Bernie is comfortable! The cafe is indeed cozy when no one else is around. Bernadetta is humming to herself, submerged in the good smell of quality coffee.

As it happens Hubert does show up, but Bernie has already gained Hubert’s approval after she served him a series of drinks, so she’s not too freaked out about it. Hubert gives her a polite nod and retreats to the shop’s darkest corner with Bernie’s signature latte. Without a milk foam bunny, mind you. Hubert has not stoop to that level yet.

Bernie is just getting used to Hubert’s shadowy existence when a man with a shiny mane of copper hair rushes in the cafe while calling for Dorothea.

“Mmmmmm Dorothea is not here at the moment, would you like to leave a message?” Bernadetta says bravely and reaches for a post-it.

“Oh yes that would be lovely! Can you please tell her Ferdinand was here and he wants to talk about the opera club’s next meeting?”

Bernadetta pauses for a bit hearing his name. How many loud gingers named Ferdinand are out there? She looks up at the man and trims down those long waves in her head to a shorter cut. She recognizes him.

“F-F-F-Ferdinand? Ferdinand von Aegir?”

Bernadetta thinks she might have squeaked a little too sharply and that caught Hubert’s attention. He’s appeared out of nowhere almost immediately behind Ferdinand and is now looming menacingly. Bernie thinks she can see a dark aura around him.

“Is this man bothering you, Ms. Bernadetta? I can remove him for you.”

Bernie doesn’t really know how to respond to that. She’s not exactly sure what ‘remove means in this context and is not too eager to find out. Luckily before the silence becomes too awkward, Ferdinand cuts in with a righteous indignation.

“I would never! Hubert how can you accuse me of such ignoble act…. Wait Bernadetta is that you?”

Bernie nods keenly. She has a bad feeling about this and want it resolved as quickly as possible, preferably now.

“Oh my god Bernadetta! It’s been a while! How have you been?”

Hubert’s visible eye narrows. “You two know each other?”

“Yes! Well….. complications were involved but yes, we were introduced a while back.”

Hubert throws Bernadetta a sidelong look. She feels a familiar chill runs along her spine, even though she did nothing wrong. She hasn’t done anything wrong, right? 

“Hubert, I do not see why you should be so concerned. Ms. Bernadetta and I did meet under less desirable circumstances but you can certainly see I mean no harm to her!”

“Maybe she’s disturbed by your frivolous existence.”

“What?!”

Ferdinand looks quite taken aback at that; Bernadetta doesn’t dare look at Hubert’s expression. Luckily at that moment Edelgard chose to drop by the shop. Bernie darts to hide behind her not very large but certainly intimidating form. Edelgard gives the two men a stern look.

“Gentlemen, please take your argument outside. We have a business to run here.”

Ferdinand regains himself upon that. He nods to Bernadetta before stumping off, hair flowing behind him like a Disney prince. Hubert now looks a bit resigned (Maybe? Bernie can’t quite tell.). He nods to the general direction of Edelgard and Bernadetta and shifts back into the shadows.

“Bernie didn’t do anything!” Bernadetta blurted out as Edelgard turns around to look at her.

“I know, Bernadetta. I know.” Edelgard pats her shoulder and sighs.

====

Ferdinand came into the cafe the next day and apologized to Bernadetta profusely. 

Now, this is exactly the type of occasion (among many others) of which Bernadetta doesn’t know how to handle - doe she graciously accept? But it’s not really his fault? Doe she say she forgives him? Does she tell him to stop? Would he think Bernie is presumptuous? The problem is, anxiety just does not allow one to handle people very well. The Professor says she just needs a little practice but Bernadetta thinks she needs more than that. General seclusion does rid her of problems like this, but Bernie has come to realize that she does enjoy a good friend’s company, provided she does not panic.

Luckily Bernadetta has Dorothea around this time, and the topic has been shifted quickly due to her nature of gossip.

“Funny how that ticks Hubert in the wrong way, don’t you think Ferdie? I’m sure he thinks he knows everyone around you.”

“Oh I’m sure he does my dear Dorothea. Hubert can be disturbingly perceptive.”

“Is that a compliment I’m hearing?

“How dare you - maybe it is, I will admit Hubert has his qualities - But how dare you!”

Dorothea just laughs herself off the chair and does not dignify that with a response. Bernadetta senses she’s missing something here, but before she can ponder on it further, Dorothea puts a hand around her shoulders and says: “So Ferdie you know our Bernie! How did you two meet?”

Upon hearing that question both Bernadetta and Ferdinand exchanges an embarrassed look. Bernie looks down while Ferdinand takes a sip from his tea to avoid talking. Dorothea looks a bit surprised.

“Huh. So is this something I don’t want to know or is it something I definitely want to know?”

“Oh no whatever you’re thinking please stop. It’s just…”

Ferdinand sighs with a resigned look.

“Bernadetta, Can I…?”

Bernie nods. He turns back to Dorothea.

“Look, you know my parents are not exactly supportive of my sexuality, right?”

Dorothea’s playful smile drops at that. She nods solemnly.

“There was this period when they were trying to… correct me. What they came up is they just made me meet all these girls, one after another. Obviously if you’re a man dating a woman you can’t be gay, right?” He chuckles bitterly.

“Well, Bernadetta had the ill fortune of being in one of those arranged dates. It must have been horrible for her. I must apologize to you Bernadetta.”

Bernie whips her head up at that. “Oh no! I mean yes it was bad! But you don’t have to apologize! It’s not your fault!”

“But you barely said a word during our meeting. It must have been horrendous to be in the same room with me.”

“Oh that’s not it!! That was… I was… Bernie was forced into it too!”

“Oh my godess!” Ferdinand exclaims. “Was it because you’re gay too?”

Now Bernie has to explain what went wrong with her entire life. She feels she’s not quite up to the task, at least not quite yet.

“N-no. It was….there was a lot going on. But my parents thought if Bernie is married everything will be fixed.”

Dorothea looks like she just witnessed a puppy being kicked and another tossed out of the window.

“Ok that’s it. I definitely want to talk to both of you more if you need, but that is IT. I’m adopting both of you.”

She goes into the cafe’s kitchen and whips up hot drinks for both of them - a hot cocoa with an obscene amount of whipped cream for Bernadetta, and a fruit tea for Ferdinand. They sit in companionable silence, till Ferdinand has cheered up and starts talking about Hamilton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of bonding for my gays and girls! Ferdie has finally come into the stage so I can start matchmaking. I'm waving pom poms to cheer Bernie on.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bernadetta joins the opera club.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alert: this chapter has PetraThea content.

“Here Bernie, I got you a bunch of photoshoots of my favorite costume designs.” Dorothea says as she dumps a stack of photos and printouts into Bernadetta’s lap.

“I also seized Ferdie’s opera scrapbook. He can be a bit of a peacock but he does have a great taste in fashion. Well, I know we want to be historically accurate, but it can’t hurt to look beautiful too, right?”

Bernie takes the handful of reference materials from a very excited Dorothea and spreads them out on the breakroom’s couch. She has agreed to help with costume making with Dorothea and Ferdinand’s opera club, and it has proved to be a very interesting task. Bernadetta has been a bit worried about being dragged into the opera club, since singing in public seems to be expected - both Dorothea and Ferdinand sing beautifully and they do these snippets and upload them to the club’s youtube channel. Bernie likes to sing but definitely not in public with an audience. Just the idea itself almost gives her a panic attack. Lucky as it turns out, there’s a lot of things to do in an opera club besides singing, costume making being one of them. 

“S-so when do you think you’ll need the costumes?”

“There’s absolutely no hurry sweety. You can finish a general version and add details later? If that’s an option, that is. I don’t really know how sewing works. Look at me, can’t sew a button.”

Dorothea flexes her fingers. Bernadetta doubts if that is true but refrains from voicing her opinion.

“Anyways we want to do a piece in the park soonish. Just to lift the people’s spirits, you know? But we can probably pass with bed sheets and what not, so you do you. Well our dedicated accompanist is out of town anyways, so…”

Bernadetta learns about this dedicated accompanist for the first time, and she ponders if social norms prompts her to question further. 

“Oh right you haven’t met Petra yet have you?” Dorothea breaks her train of thought. “Petra plays accordion and she helps us with the video making stuff. But she’s on a trip digging rocks. Rocks! While you could be here enjoy a cup of coffee. A bit of a weird choice in career, don’t you agree, Bernie?”

“Yes…?” Bernadetta is not entirely sure what kind of career would involve picking rocks, it sounds very labor-intensive, really. But before she can formulate a proper response, they hear a loud thud from the shopfront, followed by a series of clinking noise that sounds suspiciously like rocks rolling. Dorothea looks alerted as she gets up to check what’s going on. Bernie follows her out to see Caspar helping a disheveled looking woman picking, why, rocks from the cafe’s floor. Her hair is purple, a shade similar to Bernie’s, and tied into intricate braids, though those braids are looking a bit frizzled as of now.

“Petra!! I thought you won’t be back for another week!” Dorothea exclaims.

The rock lady looks up and beams. Bernie sees she has a distinctive purple mark under one of her eyes. 

“Yes Dorothea! But we were having problems and we had to come back. I’m supposed to be in the lab to catalogue the samples -” she gestures in the general direction. “But I’m needing to give you this before it wilts!”

She puts down the piece of rock and rummages in her giant backpack.

“Here!” Petra hands Dorothea a glass vial with a magenta flower in it. Bernadetta (very shrewdly!) notices Dorothea has a mild blush developing.

“You don’t have it here but this flower is very abundant near the Amyran border! You saw it in my Fodlan plants guide book and was saying it’s very pretty.”

“You didn’t have to…”

“I have to put these away. And shower too. Talk to you later?” Petra stuffs the handful of rock samples back into her bag and moves to leave. Dorothea is still kinda in shock while clutching the glass vial, as Caspar calls out. 

“Wait Petra your coffee!”

“Oh! Silly!” Petra runs back to take her drink, smiles again at the collection of baristas, and leaves.

“Hmm funny she would forget to take her coffee. She told me the first thing she did getting off the plane was to come here.” Caspar says. Bernadetta thinks she has a slightly better grasp on what is going on.

“S-so she digs rocks?” Bernie asks tentatively as curiosity gets the better of her.

“What are you talking about Bernie? Petra is a geology graduate student at Garreg Mach University. She’s been collecting samples from all over Fodlan for her thesis."

"Huh... that makes so much sense." Bernie says slowly.

"Gee I wish I could travel like that! It sounds so much fun.” Caspar adds wistfully.

Bernadetta turns to give Dorothea a questioning look. 

“What? Those are rocks alright.” Dorothea says defensively. “Well except this.”

She holds the flower to the light and admires it.

====

“Sensei! Bernie is totally getting better at reading social cues.”

“Oh, is that so.”

====

Bernadetta thinks Dorothea is perfectly qualified to be a professional singer, but when asked about her career choice she just mumbled something along the lines of “fuck those old men” and glazed it over. She does look very happy when she sings. Bernie thinks to herself as she watches Dorothea hops onto a bench in the middle of the park and starts. Petra is fiddling with her accordion as Bernie helps setting up the camera on a tripod. She has yet to finish the costume designs Dorothea asked for, but she did give the other girl a few embroidered roses she has made in the past. Dorothea is wearing one in her hair now. She hops on to a bench and gestures to Petra. Petra plays out a few tunes.

"Oh Ferdie you're late! How can I sing a duet if I'm not a duo!"

"Sorry Dorothea! Got caught at work!"

Ferdinand throws his hair behind his shoulder (Bernie is sure he knows he looks good that way) and hops onto the bench with Dorothea. They start with a piece from Phantom of the Opera. People are gradually gathering around them. Bernadetta knows that's a good sign, but being among people is also giving her anxiety. So she darts to hide behind a bush by the corner of the road and peeks from a safe distance.

Bernie decides it was a very good duet. A crowd has gathered around the duo, and everyone cheered after the first song. Dorothea curtsies precariously and Ferdinand has to grab her arm to prevent her from falling off the bench. They proceed to sing a few more songs, involving one where Dorothea sings the phantom's part and Ferdinand Christine's. He shows off his range proudly and Bernie thinks she hears someone in the crowd whistles. 

People start tossing coins at them at some point. Bernie decides she can collect them later when there's no crowd around. Not that the opera club needs money - they're well funded by mysterious Patreon users - but the gesture is nice. At the end Dorothea throws a few kisses while Ferdinand just waves politely to the people. Petra gives them the thumbs-up, but Dorothea drags her up on the bench as well, so she bows to the crowd gracefully. Afterwards the crowd starts dissipating, although a few people have surrounded Dorothea or Ferdinand. Bernie is gonna guess they're what you would call admirers. Ooooh it's like in a story! Bernadetta feels very proud to be part of this.

Now seems a safe time to go back and help with the clean-up. She pokes her head out and looks around, and senses something dark looming in her peripheral. She whips her head around, opens her mouth, and is shushed by Hubert von Vestra himself.

"Mmmph!" Bernie clapped her hands around her mouth immediately.

"Ms. Bernadetta. You'd do well not to tell anyone about my presence on this occasion." He states menacingly (maybe, that's how Bernie feels) and promptly disappears in the, eh, shadows, albeit sunshine is abundant on this summer day. Bernie is not entirely sure how he does that.

====

Bernie is fully convinced that Hubert is involved in some grand conspiracy. But there is also a chance that he simply admires the opera club's performance. Well, no one would peg Hubert von Vestra for the opera-loving type, so definitely conspiracy. She is now painfully aware of the horrific fact that she now shares Hubert's secret. Obviously, no one tells after being threatened by the shadowy phantom like Hubert. Some may argue that may or may not be a threat, but Bernie definitely believes it to be one. And if one day he decides that Bernie is a liability after all, and she has to be obliterated from the surface of earth - well, you never know.

When Hubert shows up the next day at the cafe, Bernadetta squeaks and immediately drops for cover. Hubert's face scrunches up a bit at that. He sighs heavily and approaches the counter, now looming just above where Bernie is taking cover.

"Ms. Bernadetta."

Bernie doesn't move.

"Please, Ms. Bernadetta."

Bernie slowly removes her hands from protecting her head and looks up, only to see Hubert's icy green eyes staring straight at her. She squeaks again and resumes her protective posture. Hubert sighs loudly again.

"Ms. Bernadetta, I have noticed my presence has caused you... discomfort. Is there anything I can do to alleviate that?"

Bernie was not expecting that. Is this Hubert trying to be nice?

"Mmmmmmmmmm...."

"Well?"

Bernadetta takes off an embroidered violet pin she's wearing and hands it to Hubert.

"C-can you, like, wear this? I mean just around me! You don't have to wear it all the time."

She leaves the pin on the counter and ducks back. Hubert looks resigned as he picks up the flower and clips it to his coat's lapel.

Bernie thinks it looks good on him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun with this chapter. Hope you like it :3


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bernadetta becomes Hubert's confidant. Somehow.

Due to some mysterious force at work, Bernadetta finds herself feeding the latest developments of the opera club to Hubert. She gets a tad worried and asks Dorothea if it's ok to do that.

"Yes that's fine. I know he's always there lurking anytime we have a session but I never call him out. I guess even Hubert can be shy."

“I didn’t know Hubert likes opera. Maybe he wants to join the opera club?”

Dorothea snorts at that. “He doesn’t care so much about opera than Ferdinand. Both Hubert and Ferdie can be such disaster gays.”

Now that is a new yet not particularly surprising concept.

"So they are not, um, dating?"

"Goddess no. Trust me, life will be much simpler if they do. Have you seen them bicker? The sexual tension is gonna cut my delicate skin at this rate." Dorothea scowls and waves her hand to emphasize her point. Maybe disaster gays are contagious and she is fanning away their energy.

Bernie is not entirely sure about the sexual part (she's got no experience, really, people are scary), but she thinks the tension is very much there. She’d also very much like to not be caught in the middle of it. If only there’s a way for them to work things out?

Bernie ponders the matter, as she forwards a short clip of Ferdinand singing she took during the opera club’s weekly meeting to Hubert.

====

(Bernie’s phone)

Hubert > Bernadetta  
10:16 Fri.  
-Him and his unnecessarily loud yet euphonious voice.

17:03 Sat.  
-Him and his stupid freckles.

10:44 Sun.  
-Why does he throw his hair like that he’s not a Disney prince.

09:07 Mon.  
-He just gave money to a homeless and I witnessed that person spend it on alcohol. Is he an idiot or what.  
-I mean he’s a good-hearted idiot but still an idiot.  
-This is just like the last time he fought a burglar.

19:31 Tue.  
-Pants that tight should be illegal, it’s showing too much.

Bernadetta -> Hubert  
19:37 Tue.  
-Hubert I did not need to know that!

====

“Sensei, if two people have a lot of sexual tension what can I do to help them?”

Hearing that Byleth almost spits her tea out. Bernadetta thumps on her back while the good professor regains her normal breathing pattern.

“That was….not a question I was expecting. I’m assuming you want to help your friends?”

Bernie wrings her hands. “I guess…? Ferdie is pretty friendly to me. And Hubert does not scare me that much now. So yes, they’re my friends.”

Byleth smiles at that.

“I’m glad you’re making friends. As for Ferdinand and Hubert, hmm… Well I made them do group projects together back when they were my students.” 

“Did it help?”

“They yelled at each other quite a lot when they had to work together. But the results were pretty remarkable. Their group projects were one of the better ones I’ve seen during my time as a teacher.”

Bernadetta thinks that’s funny and says so.

“Yes. I’m actually surprised they still haven’t figured things out. Edelgard used to facepalm so much when they fought.”

“She still does!”

The good professor’s smile now seems a bit nostalgic. 

“Ah, I found so much joy in teaching them those days… Do you know that ridiculous haircut Hubert used to have?”

====

For Bernadetta’s special hand-made costumes, Ferdinand has asked for an Enjolas costume, because being a revolutionist is obviously the most romantic thing in the world; on the other hand Dorothea has without a beat asked for a Gypsian outfit befitting of Carmen. Bernadetta thinks these are all reasonable requests, not too ridiculous compared to the anime design she has attempted in the past. Ferdinand was elated when he saw Bernie’s drafts. Both of them have refused to buy costumes from online stores - apparently Ferdinand ordered an embroidered vest at one point and the embroidery work turned out to be stuck on by glue. 

Well, with the rate of things, they’ll probably have the most personally fit costumes at the next opera-con. That is often argued to be a good thing, so Bernie guesses she’s happy about it.

With the opera-con fast approaching Bernadetta decides to order a basic version of the clothes involved, make adjustments accordingly and add the adornments herself. After all, what she’s really good at is embroidery. Right now in the cafe’s breakroom, she’s having her friends try on her work, so she can trim what needs to be trimmed before she proceeds to more intricate details. Soon Bernie has put quite a few pins onto her friends to mark the places that need attention. 

Bernadetta wants to advise her friends to stay still, particularly when you have pins stuck up in your clothes all over the place. But Dorothea just can’t help twirling in her scarlet dress, while Ferdinand is quickly getting into the character of a radical student revolutionist leader. He hops onto the countertop and is holding the cafe’s mop as a weapon.

He looks very handsome if not a bit ridiculous because of the mop. Obviously Edelgard must not see this blatant violation of sanitation regulations, but it probably won’t hurt to snap a few pictures and send them to Hubert.

====

The day after, Bernadetta gets off her shift and finds the space in front of her apartment flooded by at least a dozen boxes and bags of various sizes. Her first reaction is these are bombs - but obviously one doesn’t need this many bombs to kill a single helpless Bernie. Also one of the larger boxes has a picture of a sewing machine on it, which according to common sense, is not a bomb. But again, it could be a wisely covered up trap. Bernie puts her ear to one of the boxes and is relieved to find there’s no ticking sound coming from it. On top of everything lies a plain white envelope. Bernadetta picks it up and holds it at arm’s length. It looks innocent enough, so she braces herself and tears it open with shaking fingers. It contains a very simple note:

“For all your sewing needs. - HvV”

The message is not informative at all, which is not really helping the dubious nature of the entire event. But Bernadetta has served Hubert enough coffee at this point to recognize his signature, and now she’s like 60 percent sure this is just Hubert being Hubert. So she starts to examine the content of the pile and it turns out they contain sewing supplies. There are about two dozens of different fabrics, from cotton to felt to silk; Beads of a variety of materials, shapes and sizes; an embroidery floss set of 140 colors; and lastly, a sewing machine matching the picture on the box, professional-looking with a pedal. 

“I guess he likes your seamstress work.”

Bernie jumps and finds the professor leaning in the hallway (when did she get there?!), holding a cup of tea, lips curved into an amused smile.

“I bumped into him earlier and helped him carry the boxes upstairs. I asked him if he wanted to wait for your return from work but he just grumbled and left. So you know,” Byleth takes a sip of her tea. “Typical Hubert.”

Bernie nods slowly, not sure what to say. 

“Anyways. Let me help you with the sewing machine. That’s one big box.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took a while! The ferdibert has thickened :3c  
> Also is it just me or is Hubert like 200% more handsome after the time skip? Pre-skip Hubert's hair looks kinda like Severus Snape.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life is perilous do not venture outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Caution: Mention of sexual assault. And lazy writing.

“Hi Petra sweetie. How’s it going?”

Bernadetta noticed Dorothea was calling Petra and debated if she should stealthily move away to avoid eavesdropping. But unfortunately Dorothea was blocking the only exit from the kitchen. Obviously Bernie couldn’t just hop over the countertop, because that wouldn’t be very stealth.

“Hey listen, can you pick me up after you get off work?”

Oooooh a date! See that is exactly what Bernie should not do. 

“It’s ok I can wait for you.”

Bernie willed herself to blend into the background.

“Well the thing is, I might be paranoid, but I don’t feel safe going home alone? Just yesterday I think someone was following me? Good thing I was with Ferdie and he’s loud. I mean not loud enough to scare away stalkers but loud enough for me to feel safe.”

Now that’s disturbing.

“Thank you sweetie! I’ll wait at the Beagles.”

Dorothea hung up and turned around. She rummaged in her bag and handed Bernie a canister. It was labeled as Bear Spray.

“Here Bernie, take this. This neighborhood is perhaps not as safe as I thought. I got a set of two on Amazon. If it can deter a bear it should be pretty effective against humans, right?”

====

A bear spray bearing Bernadetta got on the bus and she felt everyone was looking at her funny. When it’s her stop she jumped off the bus and sprinted home. But instead of going into her own apartment and hide, Bernie banged on Byleth’s door. 

The professor took one look at Bernadetta and immediately let her in. Bernie balled up at one side of Byleth’s couch while the professor made her tea. It took her a few minutes before she calmed down enough to explain what’s going on.

“That is disturbing. How are you coping, Bernadetta?”

“Bernie is scared! But Dorothea gave me this!”

Byleth examined the bear spray Bernadetta handed to her.

“Bear spray doesn’t deter human the same way it deters bears. Although I imagine taking it directly in the eyes can still be pretty uncomfortable.”

“J-just uncomfortable? Is it enough to stop a stalker?”

Byleth looked Bernie in the eyes and said: “It’d be best if you can land a hit in their crouch instead.”

Bernie eeped.

“Or stick your thumb in their eyes.”

Bernie eeped louder.

“Sorry. I’ll talk to the police lesbians and see if they have any clues. The last time I saw Catherine she didn’t mention any stalking incidents, but that was a while ago.”

“Mmmnnnn can I stay? For a bit longer? I feel safe around you, sensei.” Bernadetta wringed her hands.

“Yes, however long you want.”

====

The next few minutes were spent in companionable silence. Byleth started to read a book after she offered Bernadetta tea and cookies. Bernie decided to rewatch some clips on the opera club’s youtube channel while nibbling on a cookie.

She went through the comment section and noticed a user had been leaving comments on most of their videos. 

@IssacW23  
Beautiful.

Hmm must be a fan. Bernie replied: Thank you for your support!

@IssacW23  
Would love to have you in my sheets.

Err that’s creepy.

@IssacW23  
I’d totally dope that drink with GHB.

Bernie didn’t know what GHB is but it does not sound good.

@IssacW23  
I saw you today. You’re charming as ever. xxxx(insert the most predatory content you’ve seen here -- Author's note)xxxxx

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!” Bernie screamed and flung her phone as far as she could. Byleth jumped to her feet immediately, looking out for any sign of danger. When she found none, the professor turned to look at Bernadetta. Bernie shakingly lifted a finger and pointed to her phone, now at the other end of the room. Byleth went over to pick it up.

“Bern your phone screen is cracked.”

“Oh no! I don’t have the money to get it fixed…... Wait that’s not the point! Very bad people are out there on the internet!”

Bernie reached out her hand to unlock her phone for the professor while maintaining maximum distance from the screen. Byleth stared at it for a few seconds and tapped a few times, before offering the phone back to Bernie.

“Ok, reported.”

“B-but! What if! That’s Dorothea’s stalker!”

Byleth paused for a few seconds. “I’d argue stalkers usually don’t expose themselves like that, in order to not attract attention. But not all criminals are good at crime. You could be right.”

“Sensei that is not reassuring.”

“.....You can stay on my couch tonight?”

====

(Bernie’s phone)  
Bernadetta -> Dorothea  
21:07  
There’s a very creepy id in our comments!

Dorothea -> Bernadetta  
21:10  
Yes I saw it too! I’ve never hit report faster in my life.

Bernadetta -> Ferdinand  
21:08  
There’s a very creepy id in our comments!

Ferdinand -> Bernadetta  
21:13  
Don’t worry Bernadetta! I shall do the noble thing and protect you.

Bernadetta ->Hubert  
21:09  
There’s a very creepy id in our comments!

Hubert -> Bernadetta  
21:15  
Yes, they could pose a threat.. I’ve tried to locate this person but YouTube doesn’t provide much personal data.  
21:17  
Do you want to act as a bait and lure them out?

Bernadetta -> Hubert  
21:18  
NO!!!!!!!!!! Hubert let the police handle this!!!!!!

====

Despite all the fright it had put Bernadetta in, the stalker / creepy youtube commenter did not show their face again the next week or so. Dorothea had been in a good mood, apparently because she’s got a reason to spend more time with Petra. Caspar occasionally walked Bernie to the bus stop and sent her off on the bus, where she clutched her bear spray and hoped for the best. Ferdinand had been heroically vocal and not helpful for Bernie’s nerves most of the time, be he did offer her a ride home when the opera club meets. Edelgard had pushed the close time back for one hour so people could go home earlier, apparently after Byleth talked to her. It may or may not help with the entire situation, but the gesture was appreciated.

Hubert let the thing drop uncharacteristically fast, if one asks Bernie.

====

It was finally the day for the long awaited opera con. Dorothea and Ferdinand paraded around in their made-by-Bernadetta(TM) costumes while Bernie and Petra followed, with Hubert trailing even further behind, although Bernie believed the majority of the gang were not aware of his existence. It was a packed day, even Manuela made a guest appearance and dragged Dorothea on-stage for a duet.

Bernie was nervous at first so she chugged a Gabapentin. Turns out people were generally nice and unimposing, and Bernie found it not too hard to blend into the background. After all plenty people were dressed flamboyantly and they got the most attention. The only down side was Bernie didn’t feel brave enough to ask those people for pictures - but just watching them and admiring their dresses made her happy enough.

Everyone was more or less tired by the end of the day but Dorothea insisted the gang have dinner together and get roaring drunk. Her plan was only half success - Bernadetta absolutely refused to drink while Petra seemed to be very much unaffected by alcohol. In the end only Ferdinand and Dorothea got visibly drunk. It was quite out of control when Bernie thought about it later.

Ferdinand: “Why is he so handsome! *hic* He doesn’t even have eyebrows!”

Dorothea: “I know, Ferdie.”

Ferdinand: ”Look at those cheekbones!”

Dorothea: “I know, Ferdie.”

Ferdinand: “And those long fingers!”

It was at that moment Dorothea turned to Petra and smooched her. Everyone was shocked for maybe a second before all agreeing that it is time to go home. Dorothea draped herself around Petra’s neck while the latter said goodbye to the rest of the gang with a blush maybe only partly related to alcohol. 

Despite Bernadetta’s concerns, Ferdinand insisted on walking her home. He did become more coherent when they left the restaurant and were greeted by the cold night air. It was an eventless 10 minutes walk to where Bernie lives, and she made sure Ferdinand can count her fingers from 6 feet away and made him describe how he’s gonna get home, step-by-step, before she let him leave.

====

Bernadetta was barely inside her apartment building for a minute when she heard a scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Byleth is right stick with regular pepper sprays.  
> I switched to past tense because I was told it's the preferred way for fiction? Tenses confuse me my native language doesn't have that.  
> I got very uncomfortable when researching what predatory people say? So I left it with an *insert-your-idea-here*. Hope you get what was going on from context.  
> Please come yell with me about fire emblem @ccCitrius on Twitter!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Threat removed and feeling sorted out.

“So tell me what happened again.” Lindhardt crossed his arms in front of his chest after a quick check on the gang's condition.

"Well! I was just on my way after I escorted Bernadetta home when I heard footsteps behind me! I turned around to look! And! Hubert jumped out of nowhere and toppled this man!" said Ferdinand while holding a bag of ice to his right eye.

"He was following you."

"And I assume you were following him, Hubert." Linhardt pointed out. 

Hubert didn't deign to answer that. "He was holding a towel drenched in chloroform. I managed to wrangle it out of his hands and he kneed me in the gut. That was when Ferdinand yelled 'I am Ferdinand von Aegir' and woke up half the neighborhood."

"I managed to land a hit on him! And got this in return!" Ferdinand pointed to his black eye proudly.

"And luckily that was enough to deter the man. He ran away from us but Ms Bernadetta showed up at that exact moment and blocked his way of escape.”

“She courageously sprayed something at the man!”

“While screaming. And missed.”

“I-I didn’t!” Bernie protested weakly from between Dorothea and Petra. The two girls currently sandwiched Bernadetta between them and Bernadetta felt safe.

“Maybe not.” Hubert conceded. “However it was not effective. (Dorothea: “What? It’s not?”) He shoved her to the ground before we could get to her.”

“That was when this gentleman here showed up and knocked the guy out!” Ferdinand gestured to a pale intimidating man sitting silently in the corner of the cafe. The man nodded briefly. Everyone thanked him profusely and loudly in certain cases.

“Alright, I’m glad someone was there to save your ass. Guess I do not need to know why you decided to leave the crime scene and carry the lifeless body of the suspect to the cafe.” Linhardt deadpanned.

“......I promise you it made much more sense at the time. It was dark and Bernadetta was not looking good, we thought it’d be better to put her in familiar surroundings.”

Linhardt tilted his head while looking at Ferdinand. “You know what? I can get behind that. Anyways you idiots are lucky I just got off my shift. Should all be good, just bruises and internal bleeding, nothing appears to be broken. Bernadetta, are you taking anything for your anxiety?”

Bernie sniffed. “I-I do have taken-as-needed meds for panic attacks. B-but they tend to put me out. I want to stay focused enough to a-answer questions.”

“That is very brave of you. Well at least someone make this poor girl some hot chocolate.”

Caspar, who’s been hovering behind Linhardt when he was performing checks, now scurried off to the kitchen as if on cue. Bernie decided he probably made a pretty good boyfriend for Lin.

“So this guy was targeting Ferdie? Do you guys think this is the same guy following me a while ago?” Dorothea piped up.

“Well at least we know he is @IssacW23 on YouTube. I checked his phone.”

“Hubert! I don’t think you should just check people’s phones like that!” Ferdinand looked appalled. Hubert tsk’d.

“Meh the guy gave you a black eye. I think we can all agree Hubert is entitled to at least a little privacy infringement.” Dorothea waved him off. “I guess we will have to question him further?”

“Don’t encourage him Dorothea! I do believe we should leave this to police.”

“Boo. Boring.”

“Are you here to solely provide bad suggestions?” Hubert asked crossly. “Speaking of which, why is literally everyone in this room right now?” He gestured at no one in particular. People’s reactions to that varied from amused (Edelgard) to mildly offended (Dorothea). 

Caspar: “Well we’re here to make sure you’re not dead!”

Linhardt: “He means in case you needed immediate medical attention. Ferdinand called me.”

Dorothea:”Me and Petra are here to provide emotional support! Ferdie called me!”

Edelgard:”......Ferdinand called me.”

Hubert turned to glare at Ferdinand.

“What? Yes I called them! This incident requires attention!” Ferdinand blushed. “Ok, I panicked! But wouldn’t you agree it’s nice to be surrounded by friends after such a traumatic experience? You were hurt, Hubert!”

“I hardly think this requires the attention of Lady Edelgard…”

Edelgard cut him off: “Ok stop it you two. Now that we’re here, might as well stay with you till the police show up. You did call the police, right?”

Hubert and Ferdinand looked at each other. A few awkward seconds passed till Bernadetta raised a shaking hand.

“B-Bernie did! Bernie also called the professor!”

“Thank you Bernadetta. Thank you for being the only responsible adult among this lot.”

Ferdinand protested but no one listened.

“Actually I work with the police, if that helps.” The pale man who’s the hero of the day broke his silence. “Off clock though at the moment. Officer Jeritza von Hrym at your service.” 

The air became a little awkward since they were just talking about infringement on privacy. Luckily Byleth pushed into the cafe at that moment. And before anyone could greet her, Officer Jeritza stood up, pointed a finger at Byleth and said: “You. Fight me.”

Edelgard blinked a few times before she face-palmed.

====

The police came soon after. Catherine, who was referred to as “police lesbian” by Byleth, was delighted because apparently they have been looking into this suspect for a while. Hubert, Ferdinand and Bernadetta went to the nearest precinct to give statements, with Byleth tagging along as Bernie’s emotional support professor. They received word after a few days that the suspect confessed to a series of tailing and stalking incidents, targets include all genders. Everyone was properly disgusted, but glad now that he was behind bars.

Ferdinand tried to invite Officer Jeritza to a group dinner on behalf of the gang, as a token of thanks. But the man politely declined. He did, however, accept the mini muffins Bernie had baked for him, along with a stack of Beagles gift cards Edelgard offered. 

Jeritza showed up after a few days to cash in one of the gift cards, much to Bernie's delight. The man was mostly silent and never tried to make small talk, which suited her well. His presence tended to scare away some people, which also suited Bernadetta well, although it's not exactly good for the cafe's business. Bernie was expecting Jeritza to order something like black coffee with no cream, but instead he asked for a peach ice tea, with a cocktail umbrella on top. It was almost comical to watch the intimidating man took a sip of the pink drink, and nodded at Bernadetta, likely as a way of compliment. 

Bernie decided she liked this man.

====

"Sensei, why does Mr. Jeritza want to fight you?"

"Well, I'm not exactly sure myself... I guess he wants a challenge, something to stir up the adrenaline level."

"Do you know him?"

"I know his sister Mercedes. She works at the local Food Basket. Ferdinand and I sometimes help out with her. As it happens Mercie only got to reunite with Emily recently - I guess he prefers the name Jeritza now. He was serving in the Fodlan Force for the past five years.”

“Five years! That’s a really long time!”

“Yes, it is. Mercie told me she’s worried about how he handles the change of scenery. A constant vigilant state as a soldier, for such a long time, can leave quite a dent to one’s coping mechanisms. I think he’s now doing contract work for the police, which is probably good - it’s closer to his previous lifestyle. Catherine told me he’s quite capable, but does tend to shoot before questions. She’s been complaining about the amount of extra paperwork she had to do because of him.”

“That sounds rough! Maybe Bernie will bake him more little cakes.”

====

Peace has been restored at the cafe. Dorothea announced that she and Petra had started dating, to absolutely no one’s surprise. She radiated a content energy and put entirely too much sugar in every customer’s drink. Bernie had to take the sugar bottle away from her at some point. After that Dorothea just smiled sweetly instead at every customer. At least two men were so overwhelmed by the unrestrained charm that they walked right into the door after they got their drinks. And maybe a woman too.

Dorothea was not the only one making progress in terms of interpersonal relationships. Bernadetta noticed Hubert and Ferdinand started to meet at the Beagles for afternoon tea/coffee since the stalker incident. They’d bicker about nonsense, or spend some time in companionable silence. It turned out when he’s with Ferdinand, Hubert was not as intimidating as he usually would be. It’s hard to tell since Hubert had his expression schooled almost perfectly, but Bernie thought he looked happy. 

One day Hubert dropped by the cafe by himself, inquired about the source of tea leaves in the store’s Fruit Tea, and left without a word. Bernie thought maybe he wanted to make sure Lady Edelgard’s business ran on the finest ingredients, so she didn’t stew on it. Not long afterwards, Ferdinand showed up, looking a little abashed and asked Bernie what kind of coffee Hubert usually drinks. His intent being so obvious, Bernadetta just wordless put a bag of the Beagles’ best coffee beans in front of him, hand roasted and what not. Ferdinand happily paid for it. 

The day after Bernadetta witnessed the two men gifting each other their favorite drinks, with lots of blushing going around -- a healthy amount on Ferdinand’s end, and an entirely uncharacteristic amount on Hubert’s side. Bernadetta thought she might have heard Hubert squeak at some point, which was pushing the entire affair from uncharacteristic to surreal. After the somewhat awkward gift exchanging process, they held onto their bags of coffee bean / tea leaves respectively, and stared at each other for like 2 seconds and immediately looked away, as if burnt by the intensity of it. At this point Dorothea nudged Bernie on the side to get her attention, and high-fived her. The clapping sound startled the two men back to reality. Hubert glared at the baristas and walked out, the intimidating factor diminished somewhat by his blush. Ferdinand went after him.

Bernie felt happy for her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes you read that right Jeritza is trans in this pic.


End file.
